Parents of the World: Save Your Children From Mediocrity!

I went to see the King Tut exhibit in Chicago this past weekend. Since the exhibit has timed entries, you prett much go through the whole thing surrounded by the same group of people. Very close to my friend and I was a woman with two young boys, probably about eight or nine years old. I heard her do the same annoying thing about half a dozen times throughout the exhibit. I heard other parents do the same. I hear the same thing in the museum where I volunteer, too.

The boys would ask a question to which she did not know the answer and rather than (a) admit she didn't know or (b) encourage them to find out on their own, she more or less lied to them. Well, she gave them her version of the truth and what, I believe, she may have truly thought was an answer.

90% of the time her answers were either incomplete or flat out wrong. Almost every single time, the information needed to answer the question was right there in the little information card next to the display.

Why was it too hard to read the information for herself or (novel idea) say, "I'm not sure, let's read this card and find out."? Why was sending her children away with the wrong answer the best solution?

I remember going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a child and my parents would get these booklets with questions and activities intended to engage kids in the exhibits. We tried to get out of actually finding the answer when it wasn't easy, but we were kindly told to go look around and maybe learn something. I still remember that knights carry a lance because we spent several minutes dissolved into giggles when we couldn't find the answer and decided it was called a "poking stick" (we were weird kids).

And I still love museums today because of it.

That woman had the perfect opportunity to not only teach her children about ancient Egypt, but to teach them about finding information and independence and the joys of discovery. She chose the easy way out, to lie.

There it is parents, you can make up an answer and have your children think you're brilliant, or you can work a little harder and give them a lifetime of learning.

I'm done sounding like an after school special, now.